• Gov. Tim Walz of Minnesota is a man of relatively modest means, according to financial disclosures.
  • In fact, he doesn’t own a single stock.
  • Like other members of Congress, Walz even slept in his Capitol Hill office for some time.
  • Flying Squid@lemmy.world
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    6 months ago

    Me neither, Tim. Never have, never plan to buy any. If somehow I inherit some stock, I won’t know what to do with it.

    • dan@upvote.au
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      6 months ago

      Do you have a retirement account like a 401k or IRA? That’s almost certainly invested in stock.

          • SpermHowitzer@sh.itjust.works
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            6 months ago

            Worth keeping in mind his pension is definitely in stocks (and other investments too, of course). So he doesn’t own stocks, but the portion of the pension he owns is stocks.

      • girlfreddy@lemmy.ca
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        6 months ago

        I do (2 in fact) and they’re locked in. I can’t do anything with them or to them except add more money (that I don’t have).

        I’d like to know who made the rule that RRSPs, 401Ks, etc MUST be invested in the stock market instead of GICs or other forms of investment. Because if I had a choice I wouldn’t have one red cent in stocks.

        • dan@upvote.au
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          6 months ago

          MUST be invested in the stock market

          You can invest in bonds instead if you want to. Less risk, less reward.

          I’m in my 30s so my investment portfolio is around 90% stocks and 10% bonds at the moment.

          • girlfreddy@lemmy.ca
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            6 months ago

            According to the terms (both are from former employers) the stock market is it. I have no other options.

            • JackbyDev@programming.dev
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              6 months ago

              That doesn’t sound right, are you sure? The choice for investing in the bonds usually looks very similar to the others. Not saying you’re wrong, just that it is peculiar.

              • girlfreddy@lemmy.ca
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                6 months ago

                I’m Canadian, so when I transferred one of the RRSPs to my bank after I left that job, the bank showed me the paperwork that stated the RRSP had to be invested in stocks.

    • expr@programming.dev
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      6 months ago

      If you have a 401k, HSA, or other common financial accounts offered by employers, you most likely have money in the stock market. Usually it’s an indexed mutual fund of some kind.

      • NotMyOldRedditName@lemmy.world
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        6 months ago

        I haven’t read the article, but usually when people like this don’t have any stocks, it’s to avoid a conflict of interest, but they do potentially own something like a whole market etf that’s being managed by a 3rd party. Something like XGRO

        That varies though. Some really do have nothing.

        Edit: And while it seems like in this case it’s true to the intent, technically, owning an ETF share isn’t owning a stock. You don’t own the underlying stocks with ETFs

        • JackbyDev@programming.dev
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          6 months ago

          Yeah, I don’t own stocks. I just have a 401k and shares of VTI, VXUS, and VOO in my IRA and traditional brokerage. But I don’t own stocks!

          To be honest though, I don’t see a problem (or at least as big of a problem) with politicians owning total market index funds.

          • NotMyOldRedditName@lemmy.world
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            6 months ago

            To be honest though, I don’t see a problem (or at least as big of a problem) with politicians owning total market index funds.

            Oh I totally agree with you on this. There’s no conflict of interest in that case so why not.